(Untitled)

[vinas]

"The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it."

- Bertrand Russell

I hate you, Psychology exam. How anyone manages to find excitement and motivation in the endless, meticulous repetition characteristic of science is far beyond me.

Comments

[shabs]

That's a pretty superficial portrayal of science.

[vinas]

What is good science if not repeatable observations meticulously and exhaustively recreated in order to approach a state of being able to produce reliable predictions? Whatever the higher-order goals of scientific enquiry, the basic model fundamentally involves repetition to promote validity.

[shabs]

You dismiss the higher-order goals of scientific enquiry, but I would think that is exactly where much of the "excitement and motivation" lies. In fact, I suppose I don't disagree with the explicit meaning of your statement, but more the implication that the repetition characteristic is the one in which scientists DO generally find excitement and motivation. If that implication isn't intentional, then obviously I am wrong to criticize it

[vinas]

Oh, believe me, I would never suggest that this mindless undergrad-work is what scientists aspire to find meaningful effort in. By the same token, however, the repetitive aspects of, say, case-profiling states in a first-year political science course does stand, to me at least, as fairly representative of what kind of work goes in to enticement aspect of the actual job. I would imagine the courses in second year to very quickly become more interesting - obviously - but I just don't think I could cope very well with the structured monotony.

As to the second point, I'd like to continue that in person.